Vietnam Rocks!!!

I had an amazing time in Vietnam! The country is gorgeous. The history is fascinating. The people are beautiful, generous, kind, and warm. The food is wonderful (lots of Thai and American infusions). The shopping is unbelievably inexpensive and exciting. The nightlife was lots of fun.

Our boat docked really close to the center of HCMC. It was a five minute motor vehicle ride or a ten minute walk into town. SAS provided a shuttle bus every half an hour or you could hire a car, cyclo (little one person carriage in front with a bike in the back), or motorbike for a dollar. The city is so much fun. It’s huge, modern, and bustling. The streets are lined with an interesting mix of hotels, high end stores and restaurants, travel agencies, little shops, family run restaurants, a variety of bars and clubs. Venders also lined many of the streets selling coconut milk in coconuts, bottled water, pirated books and Lonely Planets, t-shirts, polo shirts, hammocks, and food. There was also a huge market area enclosed in a warehouse that sold tons of clothes and shoes, knock off purses and north faces, chop sticks, table clothes, etc. At night, there was a smaller outdoor market.

The city itself is very clean and proper. The streets are clear of garbage. The buildings are modern and well-kept. Many of the restaurants are very fancy, even though they are inexpensive. The ladies wear their beautiful, traditional dresses (silk ankle length tops with slits up the sides with loose pants underneath).

The traffic in the city is a little nerve wrecking. There are pretty much no traffic lights and there is a constant, swerving barade of cars, buses, cyclos, and above all, motorbikes. The advice that we were given at pre-port by SAS in regards to crossing the street is just to start walking and not to stop, that the traffic would go around us. Sometimes there was an easy enough break in the traffic, but sometimes this advice had to be taken entirely literally if you wanted to get across. I guess SAS was right, because no one got hit. This is definitely not something that you should experiment with in the states. Drivers really pay attention and watch pedestrians here. It’s a lot different.

I stayed in Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) every night that we were in port. I took day trips to the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi tunnels. I was planning to do a one or two night trip to the Delta, but I was having such a good time just taking things slow and hanging out in HCMC, that I didn’t want to leave for so long. It seems like I take a big trip in almost every port, so it was really nice to just stay in one place and take my time enjoying it, while sleeping in my salamander free room.

So, what did I do in this amazing country . . .
I did four major sightseeing type things: The Cu Chi Tunnels, a Cao Dai Temple, The War Remnants Museum, and the Mekong Delta.

The Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple

I spent my entire second day visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels and a Cao Dai Temple. I went with SAS but had signed up with my friends Lauren and Noel. It involved a two hour drive to the Cao Dai Temple, an hour and a half drive from the temple to the tunnels, and then a two hour ride back to the ship. I brought my pillow and enjoyed a lot of nap time on the bus, which really helped since I hadn’t had much sleep the night before.

The visit to the temple was extremely interesting. Coadaism is the product of an attempt to create the ideal religion through the fusion of the secular and religious philosophies of the East and West. The result is a colorful potpourri that includes elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, native Vietnamese spiritism, Christianity, and Islam. The temple was large and colorful. There was bright color and carvings everywhere. There were many carvings and paintings of an eye. That is where Coadaists believe that god is symbolized, in this depiction of the eye. There were carvings in the wall of Jesus next to Buddah, etc. It was fascinating. Those coming to worship wore all white and chose a random place on the floor to kneel and bow in worship. The religious leaders wore robes of blue, yellow, orange, and white, depending on their actual branch of religion. We were actually allowed to witness a service from the balconies of the temple. There was colorful music and the worshipers came out in white or in the colored robes of the leaders and formed two groups of lines facing each other. They then sang in shrill, energetic tones and systematically bowed and kneeled. We only stayed for about twenty minutes of the service. It was really beautiful and fascinating. We then had a really nice lunch nearby, including fabulous traditional food such as spring rolls, noodles, soup, etc.

After lunch, we headed to the tunnels an hour and a half away. Chu Chi is famous for its 200-kilometer network of underground tunnels. The tunnels were created and used by the Viet Cong forces during the wars with both the French and Americans. From the mid-1940s onward, the tunnels were used as a base from which the Viet Cong could launch strategic attacks and then seemingly disappear into thin air. The tunnels have well-hidden entrances and thick roofs which were capable of withstanding the weight of tanks and the impact of bombs. When we arrived at the tunnels, it was gloomy and raining. We trekked through the forest in the mud as we were given the history and specs of the tunnels’ use. In the background, gunshots from the gun range rang through the air. It really gave me a spooky feeling of being there in another time. After our introduction and history lesson, we were set loose in the tunnels. The tunnels have been enlarged for tourists, but were still really small. I have a little claustrophobia, but I was fine. They were dark, dry, dirty (obviously), and small. I had to crawl and crouch the whole way through. Most places were unlit and Lauren and I were in the back with no flashlight, so you really just had to feel your way and hope you went the right way in some places. After a while in the tunnels, you would come up in a small room that was used as a kitchen, dining hall, infirmary, etc. By the time we made it all the way through, we were dirty and exhausted. It was really interesting and a lot of fun. After going through the tunnels, we were shown a video about the “American War.” It was very very anti-American (as far as the war goes). It was really interesting to hear things from another angle.


The War Remnants Museum

I spent a couple of hours one afternoon visiting the War Remnants museum. I am so glad that I visited. It was really interesting and moving. Until a few years ago the museum was called the American and Japanese War Crimes Museum. That should give you an idea of the general feel of the exhibits. The entire museum was mainly made up of photographs from the war. Most of the photos were black and white and grainy. They ran the gimlet from pieces of news articles and portraits of American soldiers to battle scenes, to children deformed by the effects of Agent Orange. The really strange angle was that most of the photographs came from the U.S. media. So, when the photos were taken, they weren’t necessarily taken from the Vietnamese point of view. In fact, if there was no commentary, you might not understand the anti-American sediment. Most of the photos were of U.S. soldiers and it often showed them suffering. There were comparatively fewer photos of Vietnamese soldiers. So, it was the commentary under the pictures that conveyed the anti-American sediment. Some of the pictures that left the most impression on me were: a photo of a lone American soldier (it was a close up and it was one of those photographs that is truly art in that you can feel the emotion captured); a sign showing twelve missing Americans with the word Missing written in large letters; two small photographs that were found on a killed Viet-Cong soldier of himself in uniform and of a woman; a photograph of a woman and her four children trying to cross a river to escape; a photo of a high ranking U.S. military man doubled over crying; a photo of a Vietnamese soldier being dragged by two American soldiers; and the pictures of the children with deformities because of the Agent Orange used during the war. The collection of photos was very moving and showed much suffering on both sides of the conflict. There were many moments when I felt choked up while going through the museum. When I left, I felt enriched by the experience.


The Mekong Delta

Planning my trip to the Mekong Delta took many phases before it finally took shape. The original plan was that on the second night, a group of eight of us would leave and stay in the Delta for two nights and two days. What ended up happening was that on the fourth day, my friend Vanessa and I got up early and went into town to try to get on a day tour. We ended up getting on a day tour. The tour had us, two women from New Zealand, a woman from France, and by a really cool twist of fate two SASers (one of whom was one of the original people who I was supposed to go on the trip with). We took a two hour drive to the delta. The delta was bustling with people, boats, and floating huts. It was colorful and beautiful. The water was a murky brown color because the rains had stirred up the mud from the bottom. We boarded a private boat and took a lovely boat ride out to a couple of the islands. On the boat, we learned about the floating huts that served as fish hatcheries(?) and the other delta life. On the islands we tried some local candy (coconut, rice crispy type things, and peanut brittle type things) and saw how they were made, tried many local fruits (pineapple, dragon apple, leeches, small bananas); had lots of local tea (the best being with fresh squeezed lime and honey); tried local wine (tasted like brandy); saw some local animals (monkeys, python); heard some local music, and generally just took in the beautiful scenery of the islands. At one point we got off of our motor boat and got into small four person canoes where we were rowed down a narrow section of the delta by a boatman. It was a really lovely ride. We passed many other local people going about their business in canoes who waved and the natural scenery was beautiful. We also had a lovely, traditional lunch at a beautiful little restaurant on one of the islands. They served elephant ear fish in rice paper with veggies, but I ate with the vegetarians since I’m not a fish fan. It was the standard: spring rolls, noodles with veggies and hot sauce, rice, French fries (?); soup, and bananas. It was very good. We had a two hour ride back to HCMC and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with my SAS friends and my new tour friends and watching the beautiful countryside go by. It was the perfect trip for me -- it was simple, I felt like I saw and did enough, and I didn’t leave HCMC for long.

Besides those four things, I: had clothes made, wandered the city, shopped, ate, and went out to bars and clubs. It might sound like I wasted a lot of time doing unimportant things (like shopping and partying), but really, I only had half a day on the first day and a partial day on the last day and all the three days in the middle I visited one of the sites above. It was really nice to actually have some free time to wander around after spending the last two ports on big SAS trips.

Here are some notables from my time in HCMC:

My clothes – I had three skirts and two dresses made. When I went for my fitting, one of the skirts and my Ambassador’s Ball dress were terrible. I was so disappointed. I was so upset that I seriously considered just losing my deposit and not going to get any of the clothes. At the last minute, I decided to go after all. I wanted the things that looked good, and I felt too bad not giving the lady the rest of the money that I owed her. I just can’t do that sort of thing. After two more sets of alterations, the Ambassador’s Ball dress ended up not looking bad and everything else is really nice. It all worked out well and I’m so glad that I went back. In the meantime, I had bought a really fun, not too formal Ambassador’s Ball dress. So, I’m not sure which dress I will wear yet. Either way, they are both really nice and just semi-formal, so I should have plenty of occasions to wear both.

I love the food in Vietnam!!! Most of it is similar to Thai. There were a lot of noodles, soups, spring rolls, rice, and fruit. The spring rolls are fried like the Thai vegetable rolls that we get at home, except more greasy. They are so yummy. There were more noodle dishes than rice dishes, unlike India and Burma. They always give you hot sauce to add to the noodle dishes. I loved that! There is also a lot of American food available. I just loved all the food that I had.

One night we were looking for a bar later in the evening. One of the ever-helpful cyclo drivers told us that he knew a good bar and took us down the street where they opened a gate and a door to let us in. We were like, “wow, they’re opening the bar just for us?” Wrong. We walked directly into one of the notorious Vietnamese brothels. It was a small room that pretty much looked like a classy little lounge with some couches, stools, a small bar, a pool table, and low and behold, about ten, beautiful Vietnamese women in short dresses. We took a short survey of the environment and decided that it was ok to stay. It seemed like it did also double as a bar and we had a good sized group (three guys, and two girls). We ordered drinks, they served them to us strong with lovely manners (of course Madame), and we hung out and paid our bill at the end of the night. It was actually a really good time. When we arrived, there were only two customers in the bar playing pool with a couple of the girls. It turned out that they were doctors from Hawaii and they had also just been looking for a bar. It was funny because you could tell that they were clearly more interested in talking to us than the girls. However, they had allowed a couple of the girls to attach themselves to them, so they were in trouble. The girls kept getting jealous when were trying to talk and were grabbing on to them and pulling them away. It was part funny, part uncomfortable, part sad. Later two more young guys came in. They were backpackers from Scotland who had also been looking for a bar. Again, they ended up just talking to us. Anyways, that was pretty much the extent of the excitement, but it was a pretty random evening.

One of my favorite memories from the trip came one night when I was waiting for the shuttle back to the ship. The standard children selling packs of gum were hassling us as usual. I remembered that I had some stickers in my purse. So, I pulled them out and started distributing them. They were stickers of chocolate desserts and they smelled like chocolate. The kids LOVED them. I saw them go from nagging sales people to children before my eyes. They were so excited, and I let them pick the ones they wanted and told them what they were called. Even the most hard core, bratty of the little sales people turned into an excited child when she smelled it. It was such a simple, fun moment.

One afternoon I had an $8 manicure/pedicure. Part of the deal was a little mini arm and leg massage. Those women are tough. It hurt and felt good at the same time. It was fun to have a little pampering! A lot of people had hour massages for around $10-$15.

I tried snake wine. They make it by putting a dead snake in a bottle and then covering it in rice wine and different herbs. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but I’m sure that I got the tourist version. It was kind of a sickeningly, sweet whisky. It is supposed to cure ailments and keep you young. One shot of that was enough for me.

Patti and I took two cyclos home from the bar one night. It was gorgeous riding through the lights and activity of Saigon, open air, with a beautiful breeze. They stayed right next to each other, so we were having a good time talking and checking out the scenery on the five minute ride back to the ship.

Shopping – So, I’ve bragged about how great the shopping was. I’ll give you a little insight into some of the favorite things that I got: very cheap knock off Ralph Lauren Polo shirts (I ended up getting four because they were so cheap and looked really nice on me); pretty painted chop sticks; silk jimmies, a super nice pink winter dress coat (for $9); a big North Face knock off book bag; a pretty pink and black tea set; pirated DVDs for $1 each; a really nice Louis Vinton bag and wallet, and the clothes that I had made. However, I now have a room dilemma. My side of the closet, my shelves, my drawers, under my bed, and my walls are absolutely filled! I think that I’m actually going to have to start stacking my things on the floor on my half of the room. I just cannot figure out a place to put my Chinese hats. They’re sitting on my chair right now. Luckily, I don’t think that I’ll be doing too much shopping in the next two ports since they’ll be more expensive and I’ve gotten most of my gifts finished.

Last night on the boat was such a blast. Everyone was running around in their new dresses, suits, and silk robes. I had a fashion show in Patti and Lauren’s room. Noel, Krystal, Jackie, Patty, Lauren, and I all tried on all our new clothes for each other. It was such a blast. It was like every girl’s high school fantasy sleepover – trying on lots of fancy dresses that you had made for you with your girlfriends. The boys in their suits were pretty fun too.

Anti-Americanism and the Vietnam/American war – In Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar, when describing his train journey through Vietnam he writes:

“The airport at Can Tho was almost destroyed and the main street was riddled with potholes; all the recent buildings had a tawdry temporary design – prefabs, huts, shelters of plywood. They will fall down soon – some already have been looted and pulled down for the lumber – and in a matter of time, very few years, there will be little evidence that the Americans were ever there. There are poisoned rice fields between the straggling fingers of the Mekong Delta and there are hundreds of blond and fuzzy-haired children, but in a generation even these unusual features will change.”

From my Vietnam experience, Paul Theroux’s prediction seemed accurate. In Saigon, things were modern and beautiful, seemingly as far removed from brutal warfare as possible. There were no obvious signs of our presence or war. In global studies, we learned that there is fear that the young Vietnamese generation doesn’t understand or appreciate the significance of the war and it’s easy to see how it would be easy to forget in a place like Saigon that’s done such a good job of erasing the memory of the war. Of course there were a couple remnants if you looked close enough – an old army jeep on the road, the famous Rex hotel where the soldiers came to drink, the infusion of English and Americanization, the old men missing limbs on the street.

I expected to find some anti-Americanism in Vietnam. However, I was shocked to find that the people seemed to be genuinely happy that we were there. In fact, there were probably more Americans traveling in Vietnam than we’ve seen in any other country. I do feel that there was one instance where an older gentleman discriminated against us because we were Americans, but I can’t be sure that that was the reason so I don’t want to present that. I heard a couple stories of possible anti-Americanism, but none of it was clear-cut. Overall, my feeling was that Vietnam had taken on an attitude of moving beyond the past and looking towards the future.

Personally, I learned a lot more about the Vietnam War in my stay in Saigon than I did in all my years of history courses. The war (or conflict, really) had always been presented to me with a negative connotation; however, I had never really grasped the concept of why so many Americans opposed our presence there. I knew that’s how it was and I knew the text book reason why, but I didn’t really understand the gravity of the situation, how personal it really was. The Vietnamese call the war, the “American” war. I think that alone sums up the other perspective on the war. After seeing the country, talking to the people, and hearing stories, I seriously understand why America was in such turmoil over our involvement in Vietnam. This is something that I never really got before.

According to the tour guide on my tunnels trip, during the “Vietnamese/American” war, only 10-15% of the people in the south wanted the Americans there. Wow . . . That’s a statistic to make me snap to attention and think. Now why were we really there then if the people we were there to fight for didn’t want us there? Obviously, it was in our own best interests, but I guess that I always thought that the government must have had better reasons than what I grasped. Who exactly gave us a right to decide what was right for another country? I won’t get too involved here. I’m really not too much of a fan of political conversations, and I like to keep my opinions to myself. I always thought that I questioned the government enough; however, I now realize that I am only now really, truly questioning our government for the first time. And, now I’m really actively making parallels against our current conflict in the Middle East and the Vietnam War and pondering more questions in my mind. I feel like a whole new little section in my brain under politics has opened up. I’ve always tried to learn enough to understand but I’ve never “gotten” things to do with war and politics quite like this before. I have to wonder what SAS students who visit the Middle East thirty years from now will learn about “the War on Terrorism.” Hmmmm . . . interesting new levels of thinking for me to work with . . .

Anyways, like I said in the beginning, Vietnam Rocked!!!

Today was pretty good. I ditched writing this journal for a while in favor of hanging out in the beautiful sunshine on the pool deck. I haven’t laid out in a while and it seemed like such a shame to stay in doors when the weather will be turning cold for us so shortly. I did go to class and do a bit of work. Lunch and dinner were both unusually good today. I had an Ambassador’s Ball meeting this evening. We’re really coming down to crunch time. It’s super sad. Anyways, just one more day until we get to Hong Kong. I’m going to Beijing independently to meet Matt. I’m so excited to see someone from home.

Best wishes to everyone at home.

SUPER HUGE THANK YOU – to Veronica, Grandma Aggen, and Aunt Gina for the letters. It is so exciting to get mail here. I really appreciate it!